Christina Sheehan, 42, of Binghamton, took her first job at the Binghamton Zoo at Ross Park more than 20 years ago. She started in the zoo's visitor services department working in the ticket booth and the gift shop. After finishing a bachelor's degree at Binghamton University, Sheehan served in multiple capacities in the zoo's animal care department and eventually became a senior keeper. She now works part-time at the zoo as a records and veterinary assistant.

On how the zoo has changed over the last two decades: It has changed a lot. From an animal care perspective, the profession has changed quite substantially in that, like, when I started in the early '90s, enrichment wasn't really a thing. Yes, everybody wanted to provide the best care they could for animals in captivity, but it wasn't taken nearly to the level that it is now. So ... I think the care of the animals is probably the most significant, most important change that I have seen in my time that I have been there. The amount of time that we put into enrichment and training, we never did that way back when I started, so that's been really important and a great change.

On the infrastructure changes at the zoo: The exhibits themselves or the look of the zoo has changed quite a bit. When I started ... where the buildings are now there were more wood and wire enclosures, which didn't have heat for the animals and things like that. So, while the animals that were in them were OK with our winters, the changing of the enclosures allows us to have a greater diversity of animals that we couldn't have had back then.

On the different types of animals the zoo has had in her time there: We have more species (now). Like when I started we didn't have penguins, so that was probably the biggest thing that happened when I was a keeper. ... Some of the bigger animals we've had pretty consistently. We've changed primates ... When I was an intern, we had Japanese macaques and now we have howler monkeys. So we've changed up some of the species, dependent on, part of that is how we can house it, also what's available, and now, again another big improvement in the animal care field is the species survival plans. So the focus for conservation has changed from some species to another. One species that may have been perfectly fine 20 years ago may be on the brink of extinction now, or vice versa. Some species that at the time were in a really bad place, the bald eagle for example, now they're in a much better place. So there's been some differing of species choices due to those types of things.

On visitors' memories: I think everything we've done has been certainly an improvement over the past. I know everybody has a very romanticized view (of the zoo) ... I wasn't a kid when I came here, but I know that we hear that a lot, too, you know, like, 'Oh, I remember back in the day, it was so great.' And I'm not saying it wasn't, but I think that the things we see from the animal care perspective have all been vast improvements over what we knew then and how we handled things then.

But people do seem to really have a real good feeling about when they were kids and they came here. And we hope that the kids that are coming up now have the same feeling. I have four kids and they're here pretty often, and I think that they'll grow up and hopefully have that same feel for how it is now.

On what has stayed the same since she started: I think, in a broader sense, the staff's dedication to a small facility has stayed really consistent. You know, we're not going to compete with the Bronx, we're not going to compete with San Diego, there's just no way. But there is a dedication on this staff that you really have to have if you're going to work through winters like this, if you're going to be paid not nearly what your value is by any means, things like that. People are here because they're committed to the facility and to see it prosper and to do the best we can. Not just for even the animals in our care directly, but for the conservation of species as a greater concept. So that's been consistent throughout.

​On the improvements in veterinary care: We're blessed in that ... our animals are very long-lived. That's something else that's improved over just the 20, 25 years I've been around. Just like with people, there's so many more medicines, and veterinary care has expanded so much that animals in captivity are living a lot longer than they used to, which can be kind of a double-edged sword. I know sometimes visitors will be discouraged because our bear, for example, might be sleeping most of the day. She's 26 (laughs). She's an old bear. You gotta give her that, let her sleep. So it's that double-edged, you know, because we're able to house things better, they live longer and then you end up with geriatric animals for a longer period of time than we ever had to deal with way back in the beginning.